Noisy Neighbours! (Part 1)

I live in a three-floored apartment complex. My one-bedroom flat is in the middle. Now when older people say, “They don’t make things like they used to,” they really know what they are talking about. Because now that I am older, and have lots of living situations to compare, I can say the same thing. In the past, houses were made solid like oak trees. It seems in the not-so-distant past, houses were made thin, like paper milled from the oak tree! Consequently, the floor of my upstairs neighbours’ is paper-thin. So much so, I can hear when they drop a pen! Thus, you can imagine when they drop something heavier - it is like bombs going off over my head! I won’t go into the gory details of life “down under,” but suffice to say I am challenged.

The other day I was reading from Ephesians 6:10-20 where Paul writes about the whole armour of God. During past readings of that Scripture I had underlined the word “stand.” Paul says we need to “stand” against the wiles of the devil; we need to “withstand” in the evil day, and having done all, to “stand.” He goes onto say, “Stand, therefore, having girded your waist with truth…” He really wanted the Ephesian church to understand their need to “stand.” This is when readers back then had an advantage over readers today. They knew Greek - the language of the New Testament. They would have understood that the word “stand” is a translation from the Greek word, “histemi.” One of the meanings of that word is “abide.” The Greek word for “abide” as found in John 15:7 is “meno” and one of its meanings is “stand.” So, in many ways, to “stand” is to “abide,” and to “abide” is to “stand.”

This is so interesting to me, especially of late, because God has had me in a season of abiding in Him, and letting His Words abide in me. I’m definitely not in an outwardly active place of “doing,” but an inwardly active place of “being.” According to the Scriptures, by the simple fact that I am “abiding,” means that I am “standing” against the wiles of the devil.

So back to my noisy neighbours. There are plenty of options out there of how to solve this problem – move, pray they move, make as much noise as they are making, shout at them for making so much noise, etc. OR see it as my opportunity to “abide” and “stand” in the midst of what the enemy would want to use to distract me and keep me from seeing God’s love and heart towards them. When they make a lot of noise at 4am, I have my speaker right beside my ear and turn it on so it repeats an instrumental song. I chose the particular song for its instrumental composition, not because of the name. The wild thing is I chose the old hymn “Abide with Me,” long before I had this revelation about “abiding” and “standing.” God knew I needed that truth repeating itself in my ears nearly every night. This is yet another opportunity to learn that the “abiding” position is a place of power.

Many of us have noisy neighbours, perhaps in the literal sense or the figurative. They are people or things that are irritants in our lives – that have the potential to disturb our peace. But, from God’s perspective, they are the very people or things that God is using to test our ability to remain at peace. Amongst His many promises, He promised that in this world we would have trouble, but when we found ourselves “abiding” and “standing” in Him we would have peace. Will we find inward peace in the midst of our noisy neighbours?